Tammy Baldwin falls short with claim on Eric Hovde’s stance on prescription drug prices

As the clock ticks toward Election Day 2024, candidate claims and counterclaims grow more pointed. In Wisconsin, the top statewide contest pits incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., against Republican challenger Eric Hovde. 

During an Oct. 18 debate that included health care costs, Baldwin took aim at Hovde over pricey prescription medications. 

"He opposes efforts to negotiate with the big pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of prescription drugs, saving patients and Medicare money," Baldwin said.

But Hovde shot back. 

"I believe we need to negotiate with Big Pharma," said Hovde, who has multiple sclerosis. Hovde, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in May 1991. 

"I think our drug prices are too high. When I first started taking my medications for MS, they cost about $6,000 a year," Hovde said. "Now they're costing $35,000 for generic drug prices. I'm against Big Pharma." 

So, is Hovde on board with lowering prescription drug prices or not? A Hovde spokesman did not respond to an email request for comment. But let’s take a look at Baldwin’s claim. 

When asked to support Baldwin’s claim, a staff member pointed to several statements Hovde made opposing the Inflation Reduction Act, which, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, made improvements to Medicare by expanding benefits and lowering drug costs.

"For the first time, the law provides Medicare the ability to directly negotiate the prices of certain high expenditure, single source drugs without generic or biosimilar competition," the CMS.gov website says. 

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, among other provisions, included a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies and capped out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and insulin for Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

The Biden administration said in August that, using the Inflation Reduction Act, it had negotiated with drugmakers to cut the cost of the 10 most expensive drugs under Medicare.

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But the bill also provided $369 billion in energy and climate change infrastructure. 

During an August 2022 radio interview on the "Vicki McKenna Show," posted on listennotes.com, Hovde referred to the Inflation Reduction Act as a "big, ugly bill." 

When asked which federal programs he would cut if elected, Hovde, in an Oct. 1 radio interview with Joy Powers of WUWM’s "Lake Effect," said he would cut federal spending to 2019 levels. Powers asked which programs Hovde would cut if he’s elected. 

"All federal programs spending went up, but the bulk of the increase were on things like the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act, which, you know, I don't know why we spent so much money for corporate welfare for big chip makers." 

In an Oct. 8 op-ed Hovde penned and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published, Hovde wrote: "I will fight for increased price transparency throughout the health care system, empowering patients and employees to price shop and make informed decisions. I will fight to require health insurers … to disclose their negotiated drug rebates and discounts, revealing the true cost of prescription drugs."

So, basically, Hovde opposes the Inflation Reduction Act, a multifaceted bill that included a provision allowing negotiation of some Medicare drug prices for the first time.  

Noting that, Hovde also has explicitly stated "I believe we need to negotiate with Big Pharma" and "I think our drug prices are too high." Hovde, before the Oct. 18 debate, has also discussed what he would do to curtail costs from pharmaceutical companies. 

Baldwin said "(Hovde) opposes efforts to negotiate with the big pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of prescription drugs." 

Hovde has opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been used to negotiate lower drug prices with drugmakers. But there’s also a lot of other spending, unrelated to drug prices, in the law, which Hovde calls inflationary.

Nevertheless, Hovde has made it clear he believes drug prices are too high and "we need to negotiate with Big Pharma" and to put pressure on drugmakers in other ways. 

For a statement that contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, we rate this Mostly False.